


Happy Birthday Brother Mine

by Silverstar309



Series: In Which We Are Bound [2]
Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies), Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Blood and Gore, Character Death, M/M, Nightmares, Tears
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-15
Updated: 2018-04-15
Packaged: 2019-04-23 05:38:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14325777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silverstar309/pseuds/Silverstar309
Summary: There aren't many things that could a haunt a man like Gellert Grindelwald, but the things that do, never leave. Not even on his birthday.





	Happy Birthday Brother Mine

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kallistob](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kallistob/gifts).



> This is set roughly a few months after House Guests and exist in the same universe as House Guest. 
> 
> For @kallistob, who I hope will enjoy this ;)

It was cold. So very, very cold. He was bleeding, he was bruised, he was gone. Oh so far gone. He lost. They lost. There is nothing left. There will never be anything left.

 

He was surrounded by snow. Glorious, white, shimmering snow. Crimson, copper-smelling, blood stained snow. Who’s blood? His followers’? His foes’? Himself? He didn't know. He didn't want to know. He was kneeling, the elder wand split in half and clutched in his shaking hands. He could feel something wet drip onto his fingers and it takes him a while to figure out that they're tears. His tears. But why? Why would he cry? Why would a man as merciless and cold as him cry? Did he even still have a heart? Didn't he lose it, all those years ago, to a man he once thought his friend? Didn't he-

 

No. No. No. No. No. Those weren't his thoughts. He didn't lose his heart, he still had it. It was broken, but he still kept the pieces. And not so long ago he gave them to-

 

He gave them to-

 

To-

 

“ _Who Gellert? Who did you give your worthless heart to?”_

His head shot up, but the rest of his body didn't move. Couldn't move. He was stuck there, in the snow, surrounded by darkness. A figure stood in a halo of light, far away yet so close. Blood red hair. A pretty blue dress. Eyes blank with madness.

 

‘Ariana?’ he mouthed but his voice didn't come out. As if someone had cast a silencing charm on him.

 

“ _Yes Gellert,_ ” she rasped. “ _It’s me. Sweet little Ariana. Poor helpless Ariana. Worthless weak Ariana. Do you remember me Gellert?_ ”

 

He nodded slowly. Of course, how could he forget. Albus’s little sister, his mad, obscurial sister. How could he possibly forget her when it was he who caused her death.

 

“ _I remember you well Gellert_ ,” she said, stalking closer. “ _How you tried to steal my brother away from me, how you reeled him in with your sweet words and empty promises. Your wild dreams. Where did they get you, hmm? Those sweet dreams and wondrous visions of the future, where did they get you?_ ”

 

Nowhere. They got him nowhere and cost him everything.

 

“ _Yes. They did, didn't they. And to think you valued your ambitions more than you valued my life. My brother’s life” she spat, close enough that if he could move an arm it would touch her skirt. She stopped, her sweet smile morphing into a shark’s grin. “But you paid more than that. You gave everything you had for that dream. Everything. Let me show you who else your dream cost_ ”

 

Her face twisted, her body too, her entire shape morphed and twisted like a bag of snakes until she became someone else. Someone familiar, with flowing blonde curls and hollow sapphire blue eyes. His…..sister.

 

Suddenly he found his voice and he whispered, “G-Gabby? Gabbrielle?”

 

She was having none of it.

 

“ _How could you? How could you, you heartless fiend?! I loved you, I called you ‘brother’! You were supposed to be there for me! HOW COULD YOU LEAVE ME TO THE LIKES OF THEM?!_ ”

 

She slapped him. And it hurt. More than it should. A tear slipped down his cheek and she kicked him, sending him flying backwards onto his back.

 

“ _Oh now you want to cry? To weep like how I weeped for you? How I begged you to come and save me from that man. From my stepdaughters and husband_ ” she growled as her boot pressed down on his knee. If he could scream, he would have.

 

“ _To think I loved you, Gellert. To think my daughter could love you. I used to love her, I used to cherish her, hold her close, protect her, just like you did with me. But then her father died and that…beast found me_ ”, she smiled at him then. “ _And you know what I did when he did? I let her starve. I let her suffer. I let her waste away. I hated her. Her and her pretty blue and brown eyes”_

 

She grabbed him by the collar and hauled him up. Then she slammed him down against the ground where there was no snow, enough to partially crack his skull. She leaned in close to his face a whispered. “Your _eyes Gellert_ ”

 

He felt something hard slice into his flesh, right beneath where his heart was.

 

“ _And while I suffered all those years, you were running around, spreading lies about your pathetic cause. ‘The Greater Good’. Whose good were you fighting for, hmm dear brother? Who were you fighting for?_ ”

 

When the hole was big enough, she pushed her hand in. He wanted to scream, but she held him down with her body and a hand on his neck. Her soft, fragile, skeletal hands.

 

“ _I heard you fell in love. Twice. First with the redhead and then the auror. Tell me Gellert, did either of them love you? Really love you? Did you love them at all? Or were you just so lonely you got desperate?_ ”

 

He wanted to say something, anything. He loved both Albus and Percival very much, the latter even more than the first, yes, but he did love them. Percival. He loved Percival Graves more than anything else in the world. Perhaps that was his mistake, for loving the man more than he loved his sister's daughter.

 

He felt it then, a hand curling around his heart, needle sharp nails digging into the fragile flesh. Pulling. Tearing. Shredding. His sister was ripping out his heart and he was helpless to stop it.

 

“Well, I guess we’ll just have to find out,” she said as she pulling his heart free from his chest and holding up for him to see. “If they loved you, Gellert, then you'll hear their screams when I cut your heart open. If they don't, well….”

 

She held his heart in one hand and a knife, which he swore was not there before, in the other.

 

“ _Let's see if anyone loves you, brother,_ ” she grinned as she plunged the knife into his heart and slit it open.

 

Immediately his ears went near deaf at the horrific sound of what could only be thousands of people, men, women, even children, all screaming his name. All begging for his mercy. But the worst thing was that none of them, as he so breathlessly realized, were his foes or his enemies or people he’s killed. No. They were his followers.

 

“ _Please! Have mercy!”_

_“Monsieur! Monsieur Grindelwald!”_

_“Kommandeur! Wo bist du?!”_

_“Sir! Please save us!”_

_“Grindelwald!”_

_“Help! Please sir, help us!”_

_“You promised!”_

 

His sister grinned maniacally. “ _Looks like I’m not the only one you lied to_ ”

 

No. NO. They weren't lies! He did promise and he did try. He helped them. He loved them. He fought for them. And he-

 

He failed them.

 

The screams went on and on endlessly, all the while his sister laughed and laughed and laughed. She morphed back and forth, switching faces and forms, delighting in his terror. Gabbrielle. Ariana. Gabbrielle. Ariana. It was enough to drive him insane, writhing and struggling beneath her, pinned down by her otherworldly strength and unnatural hold on his still beating heart. Some voices rose in volume, some died out, but the more he listened, the more two stood out to him. A child's scream. A grown man's cries for mercy. His eyes burned with unyielding tears.

 

His sister stopped laughing, and whispered in his ear as the two voices succeeded in canceling out the others. “ _They really do love. And you. Failed. THEM_ ”

 

_“Gellert! Gellert please!”_

_“Make it stop, Uncle Gell! Make it stop!”_

_“Gellert! Gellert, I forgive you!”_

_“You have nothing to be sorry for, Uncle Gell!”_

_“I love you! You hear me, Grindelwald?! I LOVE YOU!”_

_“I have always loved you, Uncle Gell! Even when you ignored me, I Loved You!”_

_“Gellert! Gellert, where are you?!”_

_“Uncle Gell?! Please! Please! Please!”_

 

He hadn't realized he was screaming, that his voice came back and that his face was wet with tears and blood. “I LOVE YOU!” he shouted over and over and over again, but his sister's laughs drowned out his pleas.

 

It wasn't until he realised that other sounds were coming through the void that he felt his own heart and mind and soul finally split in two. Gun shots. The sound of curses flying through the air. The howling of dogs. The wailing of serpents. And the last screams of his dying cause. The piercing howls of his loved ones. Of his niece and his lover. His felt his throat burn at just how much he was screaming.

 

But it wasn't enough. It will never be enough.

 

Two haunting cries sounded through the air. All other sounds just ceased to exist.

 

_“Gellert!”_

_“Uncle Gell!”_

_“ **WE LOVE YOU!** ”_

 

The screams were followed by two killing curses fired in rapid succession of each other and a silence only torn by his own desperate cry.

 

“NO! NO! PLEASE NO! AVALON! PERCIVAL! NOOOO!”

 

His cries went unanswered as his sister, his beautiful, smiling sister, poured what was left of his heart into his mouth. And he swallowed.

 

______

 

When his eyes finally shot open, he found that they were damp with tears. And so was his pillow. He tried to remember where he was, and when he did, he let out a breath that he hadn't even known he was holding.

 

He was in New York. In Percival's apartment. And Percival was in front of him, sleeping, with his back turned to him. Avalon was safe, probably worrying about her end of year exams at Hogwarts. They were safe. He was safe. For now at least.

 

The clock showed half an hour past midnight, which meant two things. One, he still had a long ways to go until morning. And two, it was his birthday. He had a nightmare about his lover and niece dying, and his sister cutting open his heart on his birthday. If that didn't show how screwed in the head he was, he didn't know what else would.

 

He watched Percival as he breathed in his sleep, how his body moved and how the many scars that littered his back moved with it. Taunting him, because they knew that he was the reason they were there. Gellert instinctively wrapped his arms around the other man, desperate, as if Percival would just vanish out of thin air and his sister would come to replace him. He hugged his lover close with his head resting on his shoulder. Pathetic, he thought. He was the most powerful dark wizard of their age, wanted in five countries, including this one, and he got scared of a nightmare. Pathetic.

 

“Mmmn, Gellert?”, he felt his breath hitch as Percival roused himself. “Something wrong?”

 

“Oh no, nothing's w-wrong Percy dear,” he stammered, hopping Percival wouldn't notice. He did and turned to face him but his face was calm. Loving.

 

“What time is it?” he whispered and made Gellert so guilty about having to lie to him. But he did, he had to. He didn't want to bother his lover with such petty problems. He didn't want Percival to worry.

 

“Half past twelve, dear” he said, smiling. “Go back to sleep Percy, you have work to- Mhhm!”

 

Percival’s lips were soft as they met his, and his arms wrapped around him, mirroring how Gellert had held him a few seconds ago. They stayed like that, exploring each other, holding each other close. But even as they parted, Percival planted one last kiss on his forehead before whispering softly into his ear.

 

“Happy Birthday Gellert”

 

“Thank You Percival”, he felt his face heat up as moved a hand to cup the back of Percival's neck, holding him closer, pushing his head against his shoulder. “I love you, you know that right?”

 

“Of course I do,” and as he said it, Percival yawned. “I love you Gellert”

 

“Go to sleep Percy” he said as he felt Percival's body relax and his eyes close. He watched Percival sleep, knowing he wouldn't for some time.

**Author's Note:**

> Got any questions? Ask me on tumblr tho you're gonna need to wait a little ^~^' @eveningrose101


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